farawayplace | (no subject)

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Everybody enjoying another peaceful, carefree day in Ultern? Good, because there's a sparkle in the sky other than Ulternian sunshine and look, it's a bird! No, it's a plane! No, it's...

"TEAM ROCKET'S BLASTING OFF AGAAAAA—huh? Hey, wait a minute...! Jessie? Meowth?! Where is everybody?!"

Before James can get an answer, he'll be crash-landing in Ohritori! Face full of sand on Stardust Beach? Embarrassingly suspended from a palm tree or even an Exeggutor? Or taking a miserably full-clothed dip in the sea? (Brrr!)

((Is this going to be a repeat of Mairin landing on various ships and needing to be rescued multiple times—perhaps, fortunately, both Mairin and James have terrible luck and certainly can wind up in fixes more times than they can count... maybe he's under the impression he can just launch himself back into the sky and find his friends, who knows?! But he just keeps landing here... oof.))

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"There, the store selling beach apparel!" James pointed. "It looks like a steal! Let's go and see what we'll find! Maybe we'll even find Jessie or Meowth!"

Though, there might be exceptions written in fine print, but James wasn't the best at paying attention to this sort of thing...

"Okay," Chloe says. "Let's go see."

She hasn't shopped this store herself, so she isn't sure how good the deals are, but there's no harm in looking. Eevee is wriggling in excitement. Smiling, she heads over holding her sweet Pokemon.

There are racks and racks of loud shirts and swimsuits and straw hats and everything else one might want on the beach. Eevee reaches for a hat and Chloe tries it on her with a smile.

"Eevee-vee!" Eevee warbles.

"She does look cute in that hat!" James said with a grin.

He looked through some hats too, trying to find one that'd look good and sufficiently keep the sun off. Then, he might pick up some amusing novelty hats.

"Ooh, I like the tropical flowers on this one..." James said, picking up a hat.

"She sure does," Chloe smiled, and set her down to take a picture.

"Eeveeee!" Eevee cheered.

Chloe wasn't as sure what she thought of the loudest attire, including the flower hat, and yet it did seem to look good on James. "That does suit you," she said. For herself, she tried some sunglasses. Simple but practical.

"Thank you!" James said happily, then checked the price tags, humming to himself.

He glanced at Chloe's sunglasses, eyes lighting up.

"Sweet and simple! Oh, you know, I think this hat would suit you and go well with those sunglasses..."

He'll select two simple, but elegant brimmed hats for Chloe to try, one in a light mauve with burgundy ribbon and one white with pink ribbon.

Chloe accepted the hats in surprise. "Oh, these are nice," she smiled, and tried each on. "I like them!"

Eevee happily chirped and clapped with her front paws for each one.

"You're a pretty stylish girl, aren't you?" James laughed a little, then looked a bit lonely, looking around the shop.

"... I don't think I see Jessie anywhere... or hear her... it might take a little longer to find her."

He tried to put on a smile and shrugged a little.

"Well, I guess it's time to pay and look somewhere else!"

"I've never thought of myself that way, but I do like these hats," Chloe said thoughtfully. "Thank you."

She sobers as James' energy deflates. Will they find Jessie and Meowth at all? What if they don't? She has to admit, she's worried how James will handle it if he's here alone. They're all so close.

"We'll keep looking," she promises as they head for the check-out desk.

"Well, you look so put-together and seem to have your own sense of style," James observed.

He smiled a little, gratefully, even if he lacked enthusiasm. He seemed to be accepting this search might go on for some time...

"Thank you. We'll keep looking, then..."

He frowned a little when the total came up. Oh, not all of his items were included in the sale? James would still bring out the money to pay, hiding the little coinpurse, as he did so (Koharu and the cashier really didn't need to see how little he carried on him!)

"That's true," Chloe smiles.

She can sense the awkwardness and perhaps concern when the total is announced. She's not sure what to do in this situation. James clearly intends to gentlemanly pay, which is very kind, but Chloe wonders if she should let him or if she should offer to cover some of the cost. If he wants to pay, it might look rude to spoil that.... But if he really can't afford so much, he shouldn't start out with so little.... Oh, she's never been good at these dilemmas.

"Eevee-vee!" Eevee obliviously chirps, batting at a pendant on display.

"No, don't do that!" Chloe exclaims, gently covering Eevee's paw.

"O-oh, does Eevee like that?" James asked, watching her play with a pendant.

He reached over and, smiling a bit apologetically at the cashier, picked it up. "Let's have this one too, okay?"

He paid for everything, in the end.

Edited 2024-03-17 21:09 (UTC)

Chloe was mortified for Eevee to play with the pendant, even moreso for James to decide to get that too. But Eevee was thrilled and rubbed the pendant and warbled.

Finally Chloe smiled. That was adorable, and maybe now she had a halfway decent solution.

"You've been very sweet," she said. "Since you treated us to shopping, how about we treat you to lunch?"

James watched Eevee play happily with her pendant and felt reassured he made the right choice.

Before James could say anything at all, his belly rumbled.

He laughed, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head. "If you will! Please, lead the way... I'm sorry to be a bother..."

Honestly, even if it hadn't rumbled, he very likely would have accepted... he didn't have much left after that. He really did put beauty before most things! And he was often starving. He was in no position to refuse!

"You really are quite kind..."

"It's no bother," Chloe smiled as she put the pendant on Eevee. "I'm sure we're all hungry."

Eevee chirped.

"The food over here is really good." Chloe led him to one of the food booths. They mostly served fast food type things, but they had a few other casual dining options too.

James will be ogling absolutely everything, eyes wide... everything looks and sounds good!

"I... I really can't decide!" James confessed, practically salivating! "Please pick for me, you know better."

He's so happy to be here! Just sniffing appreciatively at the smell of food and looking forward to eating.

"Okay, if you're sure," Chloe said as she looked over the menu. "The cheesy scrambled eggs with soybean bacon are really good."

Eevee cheered.

More audible rumbling!

James happily shut his eyes, imagining the meal.

"That sounds lovely! Yes, it'll be perfect, I think."

"Okay!" Chloe smiled. She placed the order of three of the dish, one of them in a kids' size for Eevee, and sat down at the counter. The waitress smiled and headed off to see about it.

Eevee rubbed the menu.

"She's very curious, isn't she?" James asked, smiling a little.

Mime Jr. sent itself out, appearing besides them, clinging to the edge of the counter.
"Ah, hello, Mime Jr.!"
Mime Jr. returned the greeting cheerfully, watched Eevee, then tried to mimic her.

"She sure is," Chloe said. "She loves to explore everything."

Eevee also loved meeting new friends! She happily greeted Mime Jr. and chatted about the fun day and the food coming up.

"Oh, that's a cute Pokemon," Chloe said. She wasn't too familiar with this one!

"It is, isn't it? My Mime Jr. isn't really a battler... would you believe it caught itself? I accidentally dropped a pokeball and Mime Jr. ran for it!"

Mime Jr. happily repeated Eevee's words, especially about the food! It seemed to like repeating what was said more than making new sentences, but its feelings of excitement were clear in how it said them.

Eevee doesn't seem to mind the phrase-repeating, especially since she sees the excitement! She keeps talking.

"That's so cute," Chloe said. "It must have really wanted to be yours."

"It did! It lived in one of my family's vacation homes, much like Carnivine..." James said, petting Mime Jr.'s head fondly. "I played with Carnivine as a boy, but Mime Jr. was new. I guess... it really wanted to come. Maybe it didn't want me to be lonely after leaving poor, sweet Chimecho with Nanny and Pop-Pop..."

Mime Jr. turned and happily and mimicked James petting it by rubbing on his hand. It seemed like they could keep this up for a while!

"Chimecho?" Chloe repeated. "Why did you have to leave Chimecho behind?"

She smiled at Mime Jr.'s cuteness.

"... And wait, did you say vacation homes?" she said in surprise. "Your family's rich?"

She couldn't help wondering what he was doing in Team Rocket.

"Chimecho was sick," James said with a frown. "It had a really bad fever... I couldn't really take care of it well enough on my own."

At her question, James realized she probably didn't know. "I guess... you never encountered one, huh? Misty, May, and Dawn knew, so I thought you might've, too... sorry."

His smile suddenly became nervous and he looked a bit more withdrawn. He stopped petting Mime Jr., who looked at him with confused concern.
He gripped the edge of the counter instead, looking down.

"... they are. I won't inherit any of it, so it's got nothing to do with me, really..."

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[welp!]

[Awww, James.]

[awww, nicest way this could go ;3; ]

[Yes!]

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